Getting to know your portmgr@ — Erwin Lansing

In this interview we talk to one of the Annoying Reminder Guys, Erwin Lansing, after Joe Marcus Clarke, the second longest serving member of portmgr@

Name

Erwin Lansing

Committer name

erwin (not edwin)

Inspiration for your IRC nick

My research, back in the day, as a post graduate on fruit flies
(Drosophila melanogaster)

ccTLD of origin

.nl

Current ccTLD (if different from above)

.dk

Occupation

See above
Network and system administrator at DK Hostmaster A/S, maintaining the
.dk ccTLD.

When did you join portmgr@

2004 as portmgr secretary, 2005 as a voting member

Blog

http://droso.dk/

Inspiration for using FreeBSD

Quite the usual story, going from Slackware to RedHat to Debian to
Gentoo to FreeBSD after starting at a web hosting startup, and never
looked back.

Who was your first contact in FreeBSD

The one and only web server running the startup I joined after giving up
on academic life.

Who was your mentor(s)

edwin (not erwin)

What was your most embarrassing moment in FreeBSD

Copy/pasting diffs into email into GNATS with all the whitespace fun
that ensued. Many times!

Boxers / Briefs / other

boxers

What is your role in your circle of friends

Who needs friends when one has IRC?

vi(m) / emacs / other

nvi

What keeps you motivated in FreeBSD

It’s the best well-hidden success story in operating systems, by
now in the hands of more people than one can count and used by even more
people, and not one of them knows it! It’s not only the best
operating system currently around, but also the most supportive and
inspiring community.

Favourite musician/band

U2 (yeah, I’m that old)

<editor’s note: tabthorpe is older>

What book do you have on your bedside table

The rough guide to Portugal, though soon to be replaced after returning
from vacation

coffee / tea / other

coffee, strong and black

Do you have a guilty pleasure

see previous

How would you describe yourself

more coffee

sendmail / postfix / other

postfix

bind / nsd / knot

all of the above

Do you have a hobby outside of FreeBSD

There’s life outside FreeBSD?

What is your favourite TV show

Currently replaying Lost, looking forward to the next season of Top Gear

Claim to Fame

Structuring internal procedures inside portmgr as secretary, keeping the
pointyhat cluster alive and building packages for way past its best
before date, and now maintaining Bind.